Professor Aaron Fisk, Canada Research Chair in Trophic Ecology at UWindsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, was this week named a 2015 Pew Marine Fellow to support his work with Inuit communities to develop an Arctic fisheries research program.

Dr. Fisk, who is appointed to Earth and Environmental Sciences, was among five researchers worldwide who will receive $150,000 in support for his work through Pew’s Ocean Science Division’s Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation, which works to address critical marine conservation issues throughout the world.

As climate change continues to cause sea ice melt in the Arctic, commercial fisheries are rapidly expanding northward into areas once only fished by local communities. Recognizing that effective fisheries management in this harsh and remote environment will depend on active participation by indigenous peoples, Fisk is using his Pew Marine Fellowship funding to empower Inuit communities to manage a developing artisanal fishery.

The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit organization and the sole beneficiary of seven individual charitable funds established between 1948 and 1979 by the children of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph Newton Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew.